The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

If you are new to Elder Scrolls or to gaming itself (and if so, where have you been?), please read the following before running out and buying your very own copy of Oblivion. If you are a veteran and liked what you found in previous Elder Scroll chapters, you might want to skip to the bottom and read what I think are Oblivion's distinctive improvements since Morrowind.

Generically speaking, there are three basic formats for any game play: single-player, multiplayer, and cross-genre. Single player games simply allow no more than one human player to interact at a time. Conversely, Multiplayer games vary widely in the number of human characters they support in a single "game". This can range from a two-person maximum in cooperative or head-to-head style play, to thousands of players - the maximum number limited only by the amount of bandwidth and servers dedicated to the cause. Exclusively multiplayer games conjure up acronyms such as MUD (Multi-User Dimension) and MMO or MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game). Popular MMOGs are EverQuest® and World of Warcraft® (WoW). Finally, cross-genre games are those that have a single-player mode which is fully functional as a stand-alone product, and also a multiplayer environment based on the single-player game.

I make the distinction between these types of game play, because it is important to understand that Oblivion is exclusively a single-player game. It does not now, nor is it ever destined to have a multiplayer aspect. There, I've said it. If you are interested in meeting new people online, socializing with a bunch of groupies from your own homespun clan tHe_Gypsie_Pirates312, or spending countless hours trying to level-up higher than all your buds for bragging (and beat-down) rights, than look elsewhere my friend.

Having established the fact that there will be no other human-controlled characters sauntering around the land; Oblivion does contain a multitude of interactive characters going about their daily business. As the official Elder Scrolls website explains, "Oblivion features a groundbreaking new AI system, called Radiant AI, which gives non-player characters (NPCs) the ability to make their own choices based on the world around them. They'll decide where to eat or who to talk to and what they'll say. They'll sleep, go to church, and even steal items, all based on their individual characteristics. Full facial animations and lip-synching, combined with full speech for all dialog, allows NPCs to come to life like never before." There, you see - you won't get lonely after all.

Still hesitant about giving this single-player limited game a chance? Well, consider this: the creators of Oblivion at Bethesda Softworks® made a conscious decision not to split their effort between both multiplayer and single-player modes. Instead, they focused intensely on creating a totally enthralling world in which one can immerse him or herself for hours on end. Breathtaking views and admirable AI are just a bonus on top of what this game really has to offer. Unlike many Roll Playing Games (RPG), the Oblivion storyline is not an overly structured one where the player must follow a linear path from beginning to end (e.g. kill the monster that has the key that opens the door that gets you in the castle where you have to kill the other monster who is guarding the door to where you find the robe of invisibility that lets you sneak past the final monster and save the princess...). Oblivion allows the player to do pretty much whatever he wants. Be the kind of character you want, select your quests as you see fit, and accomplish them as you like. I don't mean simply selecting whether you will be an elf or human, warrior or wizard; I am talking about making decisions like how you will get a book from a given shopkeeper. Will you pay him the exorbitant price he is charging, try to earn it by doing him a favor, sneak around and steal it while he isn't paying attention, or kill him and take it off his corpse? Be wary though, each path you choose has its own set of consequences. Running around whacking townsfolk indiscriminately will not only lessen the amount of people with whom you can interact, it will also set the guards after you and limit the places you can safely go without being apprehended and jailed for a time.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion™ is available for PC, Xbox 360, and soon Playstation 3 (PS3). While I cannot do Oblivion's many attributes justice in this one article, suffice it to say that the world is huge (and growing thanks to expansion packs), the AI is credible, the environment is stunning, the gaming is immersive, and the quests are plentiful. On a scale of one to ten, I give Oblivion a strong nine.

In my opinion, the following items are the top five playable improvements of Oblivion over Morrowind:

• Active quest selection and view with new waypoint system
• Fast Travel
• Automatic arrow loading
• Ability to manipulate most items
• Focused ingredient selection for potions

Disclaimer: This list only includes those items that improve the ease of game play, and not other enhancing factors such as improved graphics, better AI, etc.

Active quest selection and view with new waypoint system

I hated the fact that in Morrowind I often had to search through a hundred pages or more of journal entries to find the one related entry that would tell me what to do next after having completing the next step in a quest. The select by letter and subject option wasn't much of a help either. In Oblivion, as in Morrowind, each time you learn some quest specific bit of information, a brief explanatory paragraph is logged in your journal outlining the scenario and your suggested course of action. However, Oblivion improves on this concept by organizing these entries by quest, and allows you to select one of the many entries to make your active quest. You can then open the active quest in a new screen view which lists only log entries specific to that particular quest. Additionally, any persons or locations that are key to unlocking the next part of the quest are identified by waypoint markers on the map and directional arrows in your navigation bar so you can clearly identify your destination.

Fast Travel

Fast Travel goes hand in hand with the waypoint system. Instead of literally spending hours traveling the immense distances from one place to another in Oblivion (and getting sidetracked along the way), the game allows you to select on a landmark (town, cave, shrine, etc.) you have already discovered and "fast travel" straight there. In other words, once you are outside all you have to do is pull open the map, click on the desired location, confirm your intentions, and you are instantly transported from point A to B. Nifty, isn't it?

Automatic arrow loading

While this may not seem like a feature worthy of accolade, it resolved one of my pet peeves from Morrowind. I wholeheartedly detested the fact that I was constantly equipping set after set of arrows as I ran out of those in my quiver. In Oblivion, if I have steel arrows equipped in my quiver, then each time I pick up more steel arrows they automatically load in my quiver. While this function may not sell any extra copies of the game, it sure made me a happier customer.

Ability to manipulate most items

It is immensely entertaining to be able to pick up a skull and toss it across the room or bounce a ribcage off the wall. Oblivion makes all this possible, and it is not only fun, but functional as well. I have oft times benefited from dragging an opponent's corpse off to one side so as to better access what lies beneath it (another corpse perhaps?). This saves me from having to position myself just perfectly and not a hair higher or a breath lower in order to pick up that small object protruding from just beneath the recently deceased's left leg. It is also handy to pull back on one of the swinging traps hanging from the ceiling and launching it into an approaching enemy - some of these objects can do a fair amount of damage to you and aren't any kinder to NPCs.

Focused ingredient selection for potions

I am a great fan of concocting potions for my own use and to sell for cash. With an even greater selection of combinable ingredients than Morrowind offered, this would be a daunting task, except for the fact that the programmers got smart and decided to help save me some time. Now when I select on the first ingredient and move to the second slot, only those ingredients which I can combine to produce a viable potion appear as options. This effectively eliminates wasted time spent sifting through items I don't need to see right then.

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In conclusion, for the Elder Scrolls fans out there, Oblivion should be everything you hoped for and more. And for the uninitiated, be forewarned, those other single-player RPG's you knew and loved might just lose some of their flavor after getting a taste of something quite as sweet as Oblivion.